The race car is based on the production version of the Outlander PHEV, and this is all done to drum up publicity for the production car as a viable choice of plug-in, the appearance of the vehicle has been changed as little as possible. It’s wearing a livery for the race, of course, and it has big off-road tires as well. The suspension has been beefed up and raised to give it more travel, and the wheel arches have been extended to make the wheels fit.

This is one of the more entertaining parts of the race car. There are a lot of the sort of modification that would expect to see in a race car, such as a roll cage and a racing wheel. The carpet has been ripped out and so have all of the seats, with a pair of Recaro buckets being substituted for both the driver and navigator. But the dash has been left stock, so the infotainment system is still there, as well as the climate controls, and the car is even still using the stock gauges. The door panels, with the power lock and window controls are still there, and so is the center console and all of the cup holders.


The Outlander has received a number of changes, not only from the stock version of the vehicle, but also from previous versions of the race car. The race car, just like the road-going version, has electric motors to send power to the wheels, while a gasoline engine attached to a generator produces electricity when the battery gets depleted. The power output of the motors has been turned up for the race car, and the car has also therefore gotten a bigger generator.

Assuming that the Mitsubishi team intend to plug the car in and start off the rally stages with a full battery, the Baja Portalegre 500 rally is a much more suitable place for it race than the Asia Cross Country Rally. Not only is the rally itself much shorter, but the stages are as well, allowing for the car to fully recharge overnight. Mitsubishis are a common sight at both events, but it seems that this one is better suited to a plug-in vehicle, and hopefully this means we’ll be seeing some better results from the Outlander PHEV.